Enforce construction of speed breakers as per established rules & demolish illegal bumps.

Speed breakers are a good thing. It prevents excessive speeding, poses a desirable checkpoint and saves man-work hours for our traffic constables that stand under the searing Sun, rain or any form of nature that plays out.

I am recovering from a dislocated arm injury owing to a fall caused by one such speed bump that violates norms and standards set out by the Indian Roads Congress which stipulates the maximum height of speed breakers to 10 cm which is a very reasonable height and poses no threat to any make and model of vehicle currently in use or on sale in India. My accident happened because even when I was moving at a speed of 5kmph, the underbelly of my bike scraped hard against the speed breaker and caused me to lose balance. I was lucky that I got away with only a dislocated elbow joint. Yet many others haven't been this lucky.

As per data released by Shri Nitin Gadkari through the Road Accident Report 2015 ( http://pibphoto.nic.in/documents/rlink/2016/jun/p20166905.pdf ), referring Table 6.2, 28.4% of accidents occur on National Highways, 24.0% on State Highways and a majority of 47.6% on rural or other roads that are most often neglected or left unmonitored. This 47.6% of the accidents are owing to illegal modifications and rogue alterations as suits the whims and fancies of the locals. Alterations to National and State Highways by rogue elements are minimal for obvious reasons.

Table 11.1 says that Defect in road condition caused a mere 1.5% of the accidents and Neglect of Civic bodies accounted for only 0.2% of the accidents in 2015. The person surveying and accumulating these statistics deserves a standing ovation or perhaps needs to be trained further or should I say that these statistics are a curtain beyond which peeping is a strict no-no.

Nevertheless, it in no way changes the fact that "Speed breakers accounted for 2.2 per cent (11,084 road accidents) and 2.3 per cent (3,409 road accident fatalities) in total road accidents during 2015." (Page 32 of the Report) (Reported Incidents)

Referring Annexure XXXVIII (Page No. 104), Uttar Pradesh claims 990 deaths in 2015 only due to speed breakers, Karnataka taking second place at 507. Though Karnataka handsomely wins in the total number of accidents caused by speed breakers, 2868 people were lucky enough not to join the unlucky 507.

A vast majority of the victims due to accidents caused due to these illegal speed breakers are two-wheelers as we know the art of riding a bike is in the balancing. For the other multi-wheeled vehicles it's more a question of damage caused due to these speed breakers either to the underbelly exhausts, engine sump tanks or propeller shafts. Either way, all of us have cringed and cursed every time our precious and proudly owned vehicles screech and scrape over and across these bumps.

This petition is an ardent request to clamp down on illegal modifications, standardize construction and installation of speed breakers, encourage usage of plastic or rubber speed breakers, install reflective markers to identify speed breakers on a dark night, pull up chai-biscuit-timepass officials and make them accountable and get your hard-earned money's worth out of the taxes you pay.

Please sign this petition to ensure your own safety, to ensure that your children, brothers, sisters, friends, and family come back home safe every time they venture out.